| Fertility Differentials in Malawi: Any Lesson Learnt from Regional Socio-economic and Demographic Variations? Fertility Differences in Malawi |
| Authors: |
Kennedy Machira, and Martin Palamuleni |
| Source: |
Journal of Human Ecology, 58(1-2): 88-97; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09709274.2017.1305607 |
| Topic(s): |
Fertility
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| Country: |
Africa
Malawi
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| Published: |
JUN 2017 |
| Abstract: |
In Malawi, fertility is declining gradually with an average number of 5.5 children per woman. This is despite the country’s reported improved women’s contraceptive use of 46 percent recently. The study, therefore, explored socioeconomic and demographic factors associated with fertility levels at regional level in Malawi. Using 2010 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey data and Poisson Regression Model, the correlates of fertility across regions were estimated. The study found that central region had the highest fertility levels followed by northern region. Nationally, this was attributed by women’s age, education, wealth status and year of marriage. On behaviour perspectives, it was observed that living number of children and ideal number of daughters influenced fertility position. Therefore, fostering of policies aims at implementing household based behavioural change a mong people and promotes formal education among women if a country is trying to attain low fertility levels.
KEYWORDS: Age, Education, Poisson, Region, Wealth |
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